Posts Tagged ‘Frank Zupan’

I attended a strange and amazing “unconference” two days ago. It was called HRevolution and it was a collection of HR and recruiting pros coming together to discuss social media and its intersection with their professional life. It was the first out-of-town HR conference I had ever attended, made up mainly of bloggers (including Twitter micro-bloggers). The ideas flew fast and furiously, and I already have several HR University lesson plans in the works based on thoughts generated at the Revolution. Those lessons will have to be spread out over several posts, but I want to start here with some introductory remarks about the Revolution in general:

One of the attendees at HRevolution, Frank Zupan, lives and work in Cleveland. He eats corned beef at a deli called Slyman’s; they buy corned beef made at United Meat & Deli (UMD) in Detroit. The corned beef is injected/pumped with pickling brine with a machine operated by Joaquin Arredondo. Joaquin is a permanent resident alien (has a green card) – a status that I helped him obtain as the HR manager at UMD. That circle (Frank to Joaquin to me to Frank) of connectivity wasn’t created by HRevolution or Twitter, but it was discovered there. It makes a compelling argument for the continuing exploration of social media, and it slaps the argument that “people only connect on social media because they can’t connect in person” right in the face.

Laurie Ruettiman of Punk Rock HR is a true superstar of the HR blogosphere. Ooohs and aaahs were audible when she arrived, and I am old enough to be her mother. In fact, I discovered through conversation with her that I am older than her mother. But she, like the other Gen X and Ys present (which was most of the room), was absolutely energizing. Boomers like me can learn a lot from these smart kids, if we will listen.

None of the attendees at HRevolution had met me before; they only knew who I was because of my Twitter presence. Yet almost everyone who knew who I was (because of my avatar) hugged me. It was marvelous because I really like hugging.

HRevolution attendees have an absolute fascination with bacon. I have no idea what the origin of this fascination is, or why it continues. I am happy to indulge the fascination, though. The first HRevolution attendee who comments (10 words or more required) on this blog post will receive the book “Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon” as a gift from me.